16 – Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, the foremost authority on the Prophetic campaigns …–150

147 – Salamah ibn Faḍl reported: Ibn Isḥāq told us, “Allah the Exalted was exactly as He has described Himself: when nothing existed but water, the Throne rested upon it, and upon the Throne was the Possessor of Majesty and Honor—manifest in His loftiness above His creation, so nothing is above Him; hidden by His encompassing of His creation, so nothing is beyond Him; everlasting, never to perish. The first thing He created was light and darkness, then He raised the seven heavens from smoke, then spread out the earth, then He rose (istawā) toward the heaven, knitting them together and completing their formation in two days. Thus He finished the creation of the heavens and the earth in six days, after which He rose over His Throne.”

128 – I say: Salamah ibn Faḍl is weak.

17 – Misʿar ibn Kidām, one of the eminent imams …–3 or 155

148 – Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said: I was present when Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī asked Wakīʿ, “Abū Sufyān, what about those hadiths such as the ḥadith of the kursī (Footstool)—the place for the two feet—and the like…?” Wakīʿ replied, “Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, al-Thawrī, and Misʿar used to narrate these hadiths and would not explain any part of them.”

129 – I comment: The compiler transmitted it with his chain from Yaḥyā, and it is authentic. What he meant by saying “they would not explain any part of them” is that they neither interpreted them allegorically nor diverted their meanings from their apparent sense.